Praise

Praise is the act of making positive statements about a person, object or idea, either in public or privately. Praise is typically, but not exclusively, earned relative to achievement and accomplishment. Praise is often contrasted with criticism, where the latter is held to mean exclusively negative statements made about something, although this is not technically correct.

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Praise enough
To fill the ambition of a private man,
That Chatham's language was his mother-tongue.
- William Cowper, The Task (1785), Book II, line 235.

Join voices, all ye living souls: ye birds,
That singing up to heaven-gate ascend,
Bear on your wings and in your notes his praise.
- John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667; 1674), Book V, line 197.

And touch'd their golden harps, and hymning praised
God and his works.
- John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667; 1674), Book VII, line 258.

Of whom to be disprais'd were no small praise.
- John Milton, Paradise Regained (1671), Book III, line 56.

To what base ends, and by what abject ways,
Are mortals urg'd through sacred lust of praise!
- Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism (1709), line 520.

Delightful praise!—like summer rose,
That brighter in the dew-drop glows,
The bashful maiden's cheek appear'd,
For Douglas spoke, and Malcolm heard.
- Walter Scott, Lady of the Lake (1810), Canto II, Stanza 24.

Praising what is lost
Makes the remembrance dear.
- William Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well (1600s), Act V, scene 3, line 19.

Thou wilt say anon he is some kin to thee,
Thou spend'st such high-day wit in praising him.
- William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice (late 1590s), Act II, scene 9, line 97.

Our praises are our wages.
- William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale (c. 1610-11), Act I, scene 2, line 94.

I grant the man is vain who writes for praise.
Praise no man e'er deserved who sought no more.
- Edward Young, Night Thoughts (1742-1745), Night V, line 3.

Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 624-25.

Praise undeserved is satire in disguise.
- Henry Broadhurst, British Beauties. Epigram in the Garland signed B. (1721). Attributed also to Dr. Kendrick. Appears also in Tonson's Miscellanies. Anon. The Celebrated Beauties of the British Court.

Trahimur omnes laudis studio, et optimus quisque maxime gloria ducitur.
- We are all excited by the love of praise, and the noblest are most influenced by glory.
- Cicero, Oratio Pro Licinio Archia, XI.

Lætus sum
Laudari me abs te, pater, laudato viro.
- I am pleased to be praised by a man so praised as you, father. [Words used by Hector.]
- Quoted by Cicero, Tusc. Quæst, IV. 31, 67; Epist, Book XV. 6.

Earth, with her thousand voices, praises God.
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Hymn Before Sunrise in the Vale of Chamouni, last line.

Praise the bridge that carried you over.
- George Colman the Younger, Heir-at-Law, Act I, scene 1.

When needs he must, yet faintly then he praises;
Somewhat the deed, much more the means he raises:
So marreth what he makes, and praising most, dispraises.
- Phineas Fletcher, The Purple Island, Canto VII, Stanza 67.

Long open panegyric drags at best,
And praise is only praise when well address'd.
- John Gay, Epistle I, line 29.

Good people all, with one accord,
Lament for Madame Blaize,
Who never wanted a good word—
From those who spoke her praise.
- Oliver Goldsmith, Elegy on Mrs. Mary Blaize.

Praise me not too much,
Nor blame me, for thou speakest to the Greeks
Who know me.
- Homer, The Iliad, Book X, line 289. Bryant's translation.

Praise from a friend, or censure from a foe,
Are lost on hearers that our merits know.
- Homer, The Iliad, Book X, line 293. Pope's translation.

Laudator temporis acti.
- A eulogist of past times.
- Horace, Ars Poetica (18 BC), 173.

Principibus placuisse viris nou ultima laus est.
- To please great men is not the last degree of praise.
- Horace, Epistles, I. 17. 35.

A refusal of praise is a desire to be praised twice.
- François de La Rochefoucauld, Maxims. No. 152.

Cela est beau, et je vous louerais davantage si vous m'aviez loué moins.
- That is fine, and I would have praised you more had you praised me less.
- Attributed to Louis XIV.

The sweeter sound of woman's praise.
- Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay, Lines Written on the Night of 30th of July, 1847.

Approbation from Sir Hubert Stanley is praise indeed.
- Thomas Morton, Cure for the Heartache, Act V, scene 2.

Solid pudding against empty praise.
- Alexander Pope, The Dunciad, Book I, line 54.

Praise undeserved is scandal in disguise.
- Alexander Pope, First Epistle of Second Book of Horace.

Id facere laus est quod decet, non quod licet.
- He deserves praise who does not what he may, but what he ought.
- Seneca, Octavia, 454.

We bow our heads before Thee, and we laud
And magnify Thy name, Almighty God!
But Man is Thy most awful instrument,
In working out a pure intent.
- William Wordsworth, Ode, Imagination ne'er before Content.